October 24, 2010 - Sunday

     Originally this was planned as a relaxing day - we slept late and we were watching some TV.  I started looking through some of the flyers we had picked up.  I found one that talked about about a vineyard that was only about 7 miles from the RV park.  After convincing Sam we headed out at about 1:30 p.m.

Rockbridge Vineyard

    Rockbridge Vineyard really just looks like an ordinary farm with a red barn except it had grapevines growing everywhere around the area!  They make about 20 wines and there were 15 for the tasting.  I though tastings were a couple sips - not here - the glass was filled 1/3 full for each "taste".  When I saw how much there was going to be I decided no way would I make it through all 15 wines - that would been 5 glasses!  I decided to be picky and read through all the discriptions.  I ended up tasting 4 wines and buying 2 bottles each of 3 kinds.  My favorite is 2009 Ve'Or a white ice wine.  It had just competed in a world competition of wines and came in silver.  Gold was a French wine costing $99. a bottle and bronze was also a French wine costing $325. a bottle.  Ve'Or was $24. for a bottle of deliousness!  I got a really good deal on a really good wine!

The grind stone
at Wade's Mill

     Sam had gone outside before I started the tasting and when I went outside he was sitting on a swing talking to Gus, who was a driver for a Wine Tasting Tour.  As we sat there talking a woman with a small boy came out of the wine room.  The little boy tried to sneak up on us!  Pretty funny and made us think of the Grandkids!  The Mom and I started laughing and she said she had no idea why he did that.  I asked what kind of wine she had gotten and we started a conversation.
     Turns out her parents own Wade's Mill that was just a few miles down the road.  She told us that they still do grinding and we should stop by...so after finishing talking with Gus we decided to check it out.  The farm was established in 1753 and the mill started in 1882.  The Mill is water powered.  Originally there were 2 stones  but now only one is used.  The other stone is in the yard on display.  There are three levels to the mill and we climbed the wooden stairs to see them all!  There had been a festive the weekend before where applebutter was made in a large copper kettle.  We bought one of the last quart jars of apple butter and a bag of fresh ground grits. 
     When we were driving down 81 to the Natural Bridge we saw a sign for "The Best Dang Barbeque in VA".  It just so happens that the exit we took for the vineyard was the same one as the barbeque - who could reisit?

    Fuel City was the Bar-B-Que place and the logo was a HUGE Smiley Face!  (Made me think of the year the East Lodge had smiley face stickers at Green Corn and stuck them on everyone!)  Anyway, Fuel City was really a big gas sation with a mini-mart - but in the back was a small 5 table resturant.  I chose pulled pork and then had to decide Carolina or Texas style.  Texas had tomatoe based sauce mixed in with the meat and Carolina was vinegar based.  Luckily they made it easy for me - some of each!  Sam had ribs.  Once we got the food we had more chocies - six different kinds of sauce!  The Barbque was really good and even though we hadn't had any other barbque in Virgina - it made me say DANG!
     We headed back to the RV to go back to our original plan of just relaxing!